The objective of the proposed research is to use data from a general population survey of over 8,000 respondents to test a comprehensive model of the mental health effects of desirable and undesirable job experiences. The model and attendant hypotheses flow from literature that suggests that the work experience can have prophylactic as well as pathogenic qualities. Identifying any prophylactic qualities should facilitate attempts to use the work place as a site for prevention programs. Hypotheses to be tested include that work experiences will have main effects as well as effects in interaction with contextual factors such as stage in life cycle, work-based social support, job security and non-job stressors. The possibility that job experiences moderate the effects of non-job stressors will also be tested. Original contributions of the proposed research include its conceptualization of work stress as discrete experiences rather than as job dissatisfaction, and the extension of the basic stress model to include plausible but heretofore untested moderators such as stage in life cycle and job security. The analyses will also carry outcome measures beyond symptom scores to actual help seeking behavior. Data for this study came from a trend survey of over 8000 adults interviewed in sixteen quarterly waves in Los Angeles County from 1978 through 1982. The correlational design will be augmented by cross-level (i.e., combination of individual-level survey variables and aggregate-level archival variables) and longitudinal (both retrospective temporal ordering of life events and outcomes as well as true panel) components. Regression and logit analyses (via log linear modeling) will be the primary analytic strategies. LISREL techniques will be applied to the panel data.